Measuring Early Child Development in
Scotland:
Introducing the Early Development Instrument
Dr Rosemary Geddes
Career Development Fellow, MRC Human Genetics Unit, Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy
Professor John Frank
Director, Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy
Professor and Chair, Public Health Research and Policy, University of Edinburgh
Today’s presentation
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Early child development
Health inequalities
Measuring child development
Early Development Instrument
Tool for community change
How other countries do this
Our project
Timescales and steps involved
EARLY YEARS MATTER:
They set the stage for further
development
`Sensitive periods’ in early brain development
“Pre-school” years
High
School years
`Numbers’
Peer social skills
Conceptualization
Language
Habitual ways of responding
Emotional control
Vision
Hearing
Low
0
1
2
3
4
Years
5
6
7
Graph developed by Council for Early Child Development (ref: Nash, 1997; Early Years
Study, 1999; Shonkoff, 2000.)
What determines early child
development?
• Genetics
• Environmental factors – the world around
Breastfeeding
Sensitive nurturing
Reading and activities
Healthy diet
Being treated with care and respect by those
around you
Good parental role models
Life Course Problems Related to Early Life
2nd
Decade
3rd/4th
Decade
• School Failure
• Obesity
• Teen Pregnancy
• Elevated Blood
Pressure
5th/6th
Decade
Old Age
• Coronary Heart
Disease
•Premature
Aging
• Diabetes
• Memory Loss
• Criminality
• Depression
• Addictions
Source: Clyde Hertzman, Early Child Development: A powerful equalizer.
Health inequalities in Scotland
Outcome
Smoking during pregnancy¹
Stillbirth
46 Language development concerns²
m
Behaviour to other children
Total difficulties (on SDQ)
Dental caries age 5 years³ (odds)
Most deprived
38%
13%
5.9/1000 live births
3.8/1000 live births
26%
12%
24%
10%
20%
7%
4.6
1
Teenage pregnancy⁴
3 x higher
Death in 15-44 year olds⁵
5 x higher
45-74
year
olds
Death due to CHD
3.8 x more likely
Death due to cancer
2.3 x more likely
Alcohol deaths
12.3 x more likely
Under-75 year old deaths
Least deprived
3.6 x more likely
Sources : 1. Gray R, Bonellie SR, Chalmers J, Greer I, Jarvis S, Kurinczuk JJ, et al. 2009. 2. Scottish Government. Growing Up in Scotland:
Health inequalities in the early years. 2010. 3. Levin KA, Davies CA, Topping GV, Assaf AV, Pitts NB. 2009. 4. Scottish Government 2003.
5. Scottish Government Health Analytical Services Division 2008.
In Scotland babies born into these circumstances live,
on average, 12 years less than …
… babies born into these circumstances.
Measuring child development
• No standardized way of measuring child
development
• Health Visitor 6-8 weeks, next stop is school
• School measures - height, weight, vision
• No idea if children are ready for school
• No idea if the 0-5 year old environments are
providing children with the support and
stimulation they need to be ready for school
What is the EDI?
• The EDI is teacher-completed (20 minutes)
checklist that assesses children’s readiness to
learn when they enter school.
• It measures the outcomes of children’s preschool (0-5 years) experiences as they
influence their readiness to learn at school.
• As a result, the EDI is able to predict how
children will do in primary school.
• The EDI does not report information about
individual children’s development, rather
groups of children.
What Does the EDI Measure?
1) Physical Health
and Well-Being
Physical readiness for school day
- e.g., arriving to school hungry
Physical independence
- e.g., having well-coordinated
movements
Gross and fine motor skills
- e.g., being able to manipulate objects
2) Social Competence
Overall social competence
- e.g., ability to get along with other
children
Responsibility and respect
- e.g., accept responsibility for actions
Approaches to learning
- e.g., working independently
Readiness to explore new things
- e.g., eager to explore new items
turity
3) Emotional Maturity
Pro-social and helping behaviour
- e.g., helps other children in distress
Anxious and fearful behaviour
- e.g., appears unhappy or sad
Aggressive behaviour
- e.g., gets into physical fights
Hyperactivity and inattention
- e.g., is restless
4) Language & Cognitive
Development
Basic literacy
- e.g., able to write own name
Interest in literacy/numeracy and memory
- e.g., interested in games involving numbers
Advanced literacy
- e.g., able to read sentences
Basic numeracy
- e.g., able to count to 20
5) Communication Skills
and General Knowledge
(No subdomains)
- Ability to clearly communicate one’s own
needs and understand others
- Clear articulation
- Active participation in story-telling (not
necessarily with good grammar and
syntax)
- Interest in general knowledge about the
world
Purposes of the EDI
• Tells us what % of children are “vulnerable” in our
communities and in which development areas
• Provides picture of what early learning looks like at
the community level
• Reports on populations of children in different
communities over time
• Identifies strengths and where the needs are greatest
• One predictor of how children will do in primary
school
• Identifies gaps in programmes and services
Benefits of EDI
• paints a picture - EDI results yield neighbourhood profiles of early childhood for
every community in the district
• building more bridges – agencies that serve infants, toddlers & preschoolers
have an opportunity to plan and enhance their services including parenting
programmes
• planning – assists principals, schools and school boards to look forward to adjust
school programmes to meet the needs of incoming students
• takes a village – emphasizes the role of the community before the child reaches
school
• teachers tell us – doing the EDI helps focus their thoughts for report card
writing, parent/teacher meetings and programme planning
• Look forward – adjust school programmes to meet the current needs of
incoming students (schools).
• Look backward – adjust early childhood programmes to help ensure children are
ready to learn and make it easier for them to make the transition to school
(community).
In terms of what we can influence
Early
experiences
Inform
Success in
school
Developmental
outcomes
EDI
results
Predict
Example of community action from
down under
Asset Mapping
Perth East Metropolitan region, Proportion of children vulnerable on one or more domains
Muchea
Muchea
Bullsbrook
Bullsbrook
Proportion of children vulnerable
N=Percent
34.4 to 63.9
24.5 to 34.3
18.5 to 24.4
10.5 to 18.4
0 to 10.4
Gidgegannup
Gidgegannup
The
The Vines
Vines
Upper
Upper Swan
Swan
Belhus
Belhus
Ellenbrook
Ellenbrook
Darch
Darch
Henley
Henley Brook
Brook
Alexander
Alexander Heights
Heights
Marangaroo
Marangaroo
Ballajura
Ballajura
Girrawheen
Girrawheen
Koondoola
Koondoola
Balga
Balga
Mirrabooka
Mirrabooka
Westminster
Westminster
Herne
Herne Hill
Hill
Beechboro
Beechboro
Morley
Morley
Mount
Mount Hawthorn
Hawthorn
North
North Perth
Perth
Stoneville
Stoneville
West
West Swan
Swan
Middle
Middle Swan
Swan
Jane
Jane Brook
Brook
Stratton
Stratton
Caversham
Caversham
Lockridge
Swan View
View
Lockridge
Midland
Midland Swan
Eden
Eden Hill
Hill Woodbridge
Woodbridge
Greenmount
Greenmount
Guildford
Guildford
South
South Guildford
Guildford
Helena
Helena Valley
Valley
Parkerville
Parkerville
Chidlow
Chidlow
Mount
Mount Helena
Helena
Hovea
Hovea
Mahogany
Mahogany Creek
Creek
Glen
Glen Forrest
Forrest Mundaring
Mundaring
Darlington
Darlington
Sawyers
Sawyers Valley
Valley
Highgate
Highgate
East Metropolitan Perth, WA
Prepared by: AEDI National Support Centre
Source: AEDI Communities Data 2004/05
The AEDI community planning process
1. Identifying areas of particular need
2. Assessing the local distribution of children’s
developmental vulnerability
e.g. Mission Australia funds 3
year play group, language
program & mums group at
school
3. Community asset mapping
4. Mobilising
community action
Mirrabooka C4C - Change in AEDI Results from 2003-2009
60
Proportion of Children Vulnerable
50
40
Phys
30
Soc
Emot
Lang
Comm
20
Low 1+
10
0
2003 (n=538)
2004 (n=354)
2008 (n=228)
Year
2009 (n=589)
WHO IS USING IT?
Conclusion
• EDI provides communities with the opportunity
to better understand how they can allocate
resources & concentrate their efforts to work
towards improving outcomes for children.
• EDI is inexpensive & has been well-validated and
used internationally with success
• EDI covers more domains of child development
than most other similar instruments
• This ‘joined-up’ standardized holistic
measurement of child outcomes provides an
opportunity for information sharing and
subsequent planning by all stakeholders in a local
authority
EDI pilot project: East Lothian
• Preschool nursery schools
• Assess children at end of nursery
• Phase 1: smaller group of 20 teachers
assessing 220 children – test the Canadian-EDI
for language, content, user-friendliness
• Adapt Canadian-EDI to a Scottish-EDI
• Phase 2: larger pilot which assesses all
(approximately 1000) preschool nursery
children in the year before P1
Logistics
Timelines
• Phase 1: Dec 2010 to March
2011
• Phase 2: June 2011
• Reporting back to
stakeholders: October 2011
Stakeholders
• Community leaders
• Parent representatives
• Local authority leaders
• Preschool and school
representatives
• Education authorities
• Health authorities
• Voluntary organisations
operating in East Lothian